BOS Deville or 36 Van

I have a slightly porky NomadC (34lbs) that I'm looking to shave a bit of weight off, one area being the forks.

It's got Fox 36 Van R's at the moment, I've had them from new (2007) and have given me little to no problems besides a sheered rebound damper and some minor internal wear on the uppers over the last few years, overall I am happy with them though.

The BOS Devilles appeal as they are supposed to ride almost coil like but lighter, just wondering really if anyone has any first hand experience of both forks?

Servicing isn't an issue as I would be doing it myself, I also realise spares could potentially be a problem.

I have a spare set of bos deville 170's which i used on my nomad carbon. They have only had about 12 hours riding on them max. The 170 only come with a tapered steerer and weigh 2000gs!
By far the best enduro orientated fork i have used, these are my second set.
I've had most forks on the market, including new pikes, 36, 55rc3ti to name a few and the bos, in my opinion are miles above the rest in terms of build quality and performance. Never had any issues with bos and my first pair i rode constantly for over a year.
600 pounds if you're interested.

I'd also go for pikes. Tapered is not an option on my older model alpine 160 so I went for devilles, really impressed with them but I would've preferred the back up from a bigger company that keep good stock of spares should I need them! I've kept my coil lyriks in case the devilles end up broken awaiting parts!

The difference between them and a Deville is inconsequential, yet they are noticeably lighter, and should you have any issues, there is a huge support network of backup.

Or buy a BOS. Who have are on their 4th distributor in as many years. Everyone I know who has run BOS has had issues (me included). Which is awesome, because you can't get them fixed officially, you have to go to a third party, someone like J-Tech and pay for the privilege.

What Hobnob said.
I've just put Pikes on my Nomad c, lost almost half a kilo off the front end in doing so.
Going single ring up front with a narrow/wide ring would shave another chunk of weight off too.

You guys are pretty much confirming what I was kind of hoping you wouldn't about BOS. I ride 2/3 times a week so can't really afford for the bike to be out of action with knackered forks, which is probably why I have stuck with the Vans for so many years/bikes.

twohats - not sure I get the current trend for single rings, I would be hanging by the end of some of the 30/40 mile routes I do if I didn't have the ability the drop into the granny.

I've got a set of Devilles 140's on my foes. Out of the box they didn't work, sent them back to be repaired which was done in a week. They are a lovely plush fork but I wouldn't say that they are any better than the foxes and you'll have the back up of Mojo with the foxes.

34lbs for a nomadc! I'd expect to get 29lbs...
But yeah pikes for sure, slants get good reviews - my friends love theirs. BOS are best performing out the box in my eyes but rockshox have the reliability and spares side covered.

This just isn't the case though. Even if you settle on the fact they are better, the increase in performance is only marginal...particularly so in comparison to manufacturers such as RS who have upped their game.

to the OP, re weight, I'd also loose the coil shock with the steel spring lol (or at least get a decent air shock if you want to shed some poundage :-))

Definitely pikes. Those vans are about 2400g, and pikes are less than 1900g according to sram. That's a pound off straight away, and all the usual rockshox reliability and levels of service (hopefully). There's too many bad reports of people struggling to get spares and repairs on BOS forks.

By far the best enduro orientated fork i have used, these are my second set.
I've had most forks on the market, including new pikes, 36, 55rc3ti to name a few and the bos, in my opinion are miles above the rest in terms of build quality and performance. Never had any issues with bos and my first pair i rode constantly for over a year.

I haven't had new pikes so cannot comment butt in general I would agree with this.

In terms of outright performance they're the best forks I've ever owned or used. I've never had anything go wrong with any of them and so cannot comment in problems.

That said, I now have Marzocchi 55 rc3ti that are so close in performance that I'll willingly give up the extra 3% in performance for the sake of a 3 year no service warranty.

I've recently swapped my 36 Van RC2's for a pair of Devilles and am a very happy bunny. I normally hate air forks, but the Devilles are the best air forks that I've ridden and are really plush. They're not as stiff as the 36's; barrelling through rocky bits, you can feel a bit more flex and deflection but they're certainly not noodles.

I bought mine second hand (I'm too tight to pay the best part of a grand for some forks). They were easy enough to strip down, grease and refill with oil. The insides are really nicely made and all CNC'd.

I was really happy with my 36's but was having issues running 1 1/8th forks in a tapered head tube. The lower bearings were getting really beaten up so I wanted to swap to a tapered fork.

The Pike's are really popular although personally I've always find that Rock Shox feel a bit odd. I can't out my finger on it and I know I'm in the minority (I hated my old Pikes but most love them).

With regards to the CCDBa....great shock, but mine weighs loads for an air shock.

I had Marzocchi 55's on my SX Trail in around 2007, managed to destroy them pretty quickly, they also seemed REALLY heavy. Windwave also took forever to repair them when the TST cartridge blew so I've kind of disregarded them ever since.

Mindmap - I would also be buying used (if going for BOS) some pretty helpful information there, cheers.

The ATA cartridge on my AM I's tormented me too. Those forks spent more time at Windwave then they did on the front of my bike.

There was a thread on here about servicing BOS forks which I used (although some of the bolt / nut sizes were different on mine). They have a whole load of oil in the damper side. You can use Fox 34 seals too which are easy enough to get hold of.

I bought my devilles second hand (I'm too tight to pay the best part of a grand for some forks). They were easy enough to strip down, grease and refill with oil. The insides are really nicely made and all CNC'd.

I quite liked my 55rc3ti(2013) but found that the only REAL way to set up the compression damping to how i liked was a heavier oil. Adding air in the bottom chamber only made them sticky was best left empty. I went back to bos after those and was happy again. The high and low speed damping works great and is perfect to fine tune.
I ride a 2014 enduro sworks at the mo with Ccdba and 650b pikes(also second set of pikes) and i still think the bos are better built, better damping and easier to fine tune.
Another thing to consider is that the nomad is 67 deg ha with 36s, a pike is shorter(if i remember correctly) and will Steepen your head angle.
What about xfusion vengeance? Theres a few around second hand and they're similar in design to the 36. I haven't owned them but have ridden them and they're pretty good.
Also if you're keeping a coil out back then i highly recommend a push link. The original link is designed for an air shock and the push one changes the leverage ratio to suit a coil. Best mod i made to my nomad.

The Pike's are really popular although personally I've always find that Rock Shox feel a bit odd. I can't out my finger on it and I know I'm in the minority (I hated my old Pikes but most love them).

I know what you mean - I put it down to the damping, which seems all or nothing; the low speed seems to effect the high speed & stifle the fork. I find them impossible to fine tune. That said I've got some 2010 revelation teams with blackbox dual flow damping and these seem a lot better than any of the others I've had.

Best fork I have used was a 55 RC3-Ti with an Avalanche Downhill damper, but that wouldn't save you any weight .

Of the Bos Deville vs Pike I would agree with what has been said above in that the Bos feels more controlled. The Pike feels good but there is an inconsistency to the damping in that it sometimes feels a bit on/off leading to occasionally blowing through the travel (still feels better than most other forks and is not the end of the world... won't stop me buying one).

The Bos and Pike feel similar but different, they both hold up in the travel but the Bos has a more pronounced feeling of control/firmness which may or not suit you; if you like running a soft rear spring it probably won't. The Deville rides very firm in the first part of its travel and if you run a saggy rear end (oooh er missus) its likely to feel unballanced.

What rear shock are you going to run? Its worth thinking hollistically if you want a ballanced set-up

The marzocchi 55 rc3 ti evo 2 forks from the last couple of years are flipping brilliant, but they're not going to save you any weight over the fox 36's you have now , but they wont be any heavier. They will perform much better though.

If saving weight is the name of the game, then switch to CCDBa on the rear, and go tubeless with a lighter set of rims.

I'm a bit disappointed with my Bos Deville's. After all the hype I found I preferred the Fox Float 32's they replaced. Maybe they hold up more on steep stuff and dive less under breaking but they don't have much plushness. They are probably better than most other forks if you can ride at the same level as Nico Vouilloiz, but I don't